Actually, nothing can ensure that the user will not directly carry the audio output of the baffle to one of his ears and this either deliberately (notably a child) or unintentionally.
Solutions to the problem mentioned above have been thought of in relation to the place of the loudspeaker on the mobile telephone handset.
A first solution would consist of placing the loudspeaker with its sound opening area on a side face of the handheld telephone, given the fact that it is unnatural to keep the handset to one's ear in a direction perpendicular to the customary direction.
However, this would pose large problems of miniaturization of the loudspeaker as already indicated above.
The loudspeaker may overlap the earphone in which case the same membrane carries out the two functions of listening and amplified listening.
In this case there may be provided to avoid any audio shock, to place an infrared radiation sensor in the immediate proximity of the loudspeaker to recognize notably the closeness to the ear and, in consequence, to inhibit the loudspeaker function.
For certain cordless handsets still another solution consists of placing the loudspeaker on the back face of the handset and, to avoid contact of the output of the loudspeaker and the ear, of placing the handset at the place where the palm of the hand is which is normally in contact with the device when one seizes the handset in customary fashion. Such an arrangement which has been chosen for the cordless telephone according to the DECT standard made by Philips largely suppresses the risk of audio shock by the loudspeaker, but the contact of the latter with the ear remains possible, however, even if it is not natural to put one's ear at such a place, which may lead to acoustic pressure levels which may exceed 40 dBPa(A) for a 8.OMEGA. loudspeaker, whereas the maximum admissible level is 30 dBPa(A). On the other hand, the location of the loudspeaker in the middle of the back face makes it difficult to have a communication situation in which a person uses his handset in customary fashion with the earphone against his ear whereas, furthermore, the amplified listening has been turned on for permitting the people around him to hear the whole telephone conversation.
It is an object of the invention to provide a mobile telephone with a loudspeaker for amplified listening which suppresses the risk of audio shock which would be due to the fact that this loudspeaker is too close to the user's ear.
It is another object of the invention to provide a mobile telephone with an amplified listening loudspeaker which is rather omnidirectional.